In some political media, I came across claims by some people that China is using North Korea as a proxy to fight against the US or using the North Korean nuclear programme as a bargaining tool in its international diplomacy. If the claims are true, China is making a pact with the Devil. What has China gained from the US with its "bargaining tool"? Getting the US to force Taiwan to reunite with the Chinese mainland? Getting the US to rescind the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act? Getting Japan to return the Diaoyu Islands to China? Getting all the US forces to withdraw from Asia to the American mainland? Absolutely none!! Hence North Korea has no value as a bargaining chip for China at all.

For China to let a nuclear-armed North Korea exist across its border is akin to rearing a tiger to its own detriment (yang hu wei huan 养虎为患 as a Chinese saying goes). Using another analogy, it is just like a swordsman adopting his enemy's son and imparting all his fighting skills to him. So far China has gained nothing but a lot to lose from its Frankenstein's creation. I just mention one of the geopolitical fallouts from China's tolerance or impotence towards North Korea's nuclear programme. Some countries have begun to view China as a "paper tiger", allowing North Korea to lead it by the nose, or worst of all, by the leash as narrated in my http://politicalfray.com/political-humor/6824-political-satire-old-man-mountain-4-a.html

Recent events around China have shown the following countries have been emboldened by North Korea's defiance against its foolish benefactor and they have begun to emulate North Korea in their dealings with China.

(a) Modi's China diplomacy signals a great change in India's attitude towards that nation -- from a defensive posture maintained over several decades to that of equal, controlled aggression. Currently, there is a standoff between Chinese and Indian troops at their borders. Indian troops still remain in the "Chinese side" of the border despite China's demand for immediate withdrawal.

(b) Vietnam has begun drilling for oil in an area of the resource-rich South China Sea also claimed by China.

Kim Jong-Un reportedly called North Korea a "military power of the East that cannot be touched by even the strongest enemy". The significance of his remark should not be lost on China. If North Korea cannot be subdued by the "strongest enemy", supposedly to be America; neither can China.

Kim's bragging of his country's invincibility is reminiscent of a cunning fox in a Chinese fable escaping death by tricking a stupid tiger into believing that it (the fox) was the king of the jungle. No wonder nowadays he seems to display a more forceful personality in his gait, living in a world of fantasy and self-delusion that he himself is the "Emperor of the East". However, before North Korea's self-destruction like the frog that inflated itself bragging it could be as big as an ox in Aesop's fable, more countries have begun to view China as a "paper tiger". Emboldened by China's impotence or reluctance to rein in its errant ally, they have become more assertive about their sovereignty. Two more such countries can be added to the list in my previous post.

(d) (Begin excerpts)
Indonesia renamed the northern reaches of its exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea as the North Natuna Sea on Friday, the latest act of resistance by Southeast Asian nations to China's territorial ambitions in the maritime region.

Seen by analysts as an assertion of Indonesian sovereignty, part of the renamed sea is claimed by China under its contentious maritime boundary, known as the 'nine-dash line', that encompasses most of the resource-rich sea.....

Indonesia insists it's a non-claimant state in the South China Sea dispute but has clashed with China over fishing rights around the Natuna Islands, detaining Chinese fishermen and expanding its military presence in the area over the past 18 months.... (End excerpts)

(e) (Begin excerpts)
...the director of the Philippines Energy Resource Development Bureau, Ismael Ocampo, said on Wednesday that the country could lift a suspension on oil and gas drilling on the Reed Bank by December. The underwater mountain, lying 85 nautical miles off the Philippines coast, is also claimed by China.

... the Philippines lately has become more assertive about its sovereignty.

More than two dozen oil, gas and coal blocks, including additional areas in disputed waters, may be offered during the December bidding, Ocampo said on Wednesday. (End excerpts)

It won't be surprising that more and more countries will view China as a "paper tiger" if it continues to turn a blind eye to North Korea's sabre-rattling and "barking" of invincibility.

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